Over 400 Soldiers Killed in Gaza Since the Beginning of the War
On motzoei Shabbos, we received the distressing news that four Israeli soldiers had been killed in Beit Chanoun in Gaza. And this wasn’t the only piece of bad news that emerged from the war zone in recent days. On Monday five soldiers were killed when a building they were blowing up, did so prematurely, with them still inside. Three soldiers were killed last Wednesday as well. The death toll is staggering.
Over the past two months, since the IDF began its latest ground operation in the northern Gazs Strip, fifty five soldiers have been killed. And a over 400 soldiers have been killed in Gaza since the war began. Just imagine the heartbroken parents, family members, friends, and other acquaintances of a single fallen soldier, and multiply that by 400. These deaths are a burden that this country is struggling to bear.
The recent incidents sparked criticism for the IDF as a whole and for the chief of staff in particular. On Shabbos, four soldiers were killed and six others were wounded, including two who are now in critical condition. The wounded soldiers were evacuated to hospitals in the center of the country by air force helicopters within minutes of the incident. The initial probe indicated that the soldiers were wounded by an explosive device in Beit Chanoun. The group of soldiers, which included members of the Nachal Brigade and the brigade’s deputy commander, were traveling in a convoy of jeeps that entered a minefield on the outskirts of Beit Chanoun. At least two vehicles were damaged by the explosions, and terrorists immediately opened fire on the Israeli soldiers after the blasts. The IDF claims that the vehicles were traveling on a road that had already been traversed by army vehicles in the past, and that the army is working to deal with the large number of explosives planted in the area. The Nachal Brigade and the 401st Brigade of the Armored Corps have paid a very heavy price for their operations already, with eleven soldiers killed and about twenty wounded. The IDF believes that the terrorists made extensive preparations for the army’s operations in Beit Chanoun, hiding explosives in homes and on roads with the goal of harming as many Israeli soldiers as possible.
After the tragedy, Prime Minister Netanyahu paid tribute to the fallen soldiers. “Along with the rest of Israel,” he said, “I am pained by the deaths of four IDF soldiers: Staff Sergeant Danila Diakov, Sergeant Major Alexander Fedorenko, Sergeant Yahav Maayan, and Sergeant Eliav Astuker. They fell while defending our homeland in battle in the northern Gaza Strip, in a war for our survival and our security. Their heroism and courage will be etched into our hearts forever. Our hearts go out to the mourning families during these painful moments. We will never forget the heavy price that they are paying for all of us. May their memories be blessed.”
Is Army Policy at Fault for the Death Toll?
The large number of military deaths hasn’t only caused general demoralization; it has also sparked calls for Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi to step down. This time, the opposition to Halevi is for purely professional reasons. Halevi was responsible for setting the army’s policies for the current war, which call for the soldiers to sweep every building for terrorists and then to move on, but tragic experience has shown that terrorists have been returning to buildings that were previously cleared and have ambushed the soldiers from their new hideouts. Halevi’s critics have made two basic arguments against him. First, they insist that the buildings should be leveled after it is determined that they were cleared of terrorists (or even before they were searched and found to be unoccupied, by means of the same air strikes used at the beginning of the war). Second, the army should not abandon any area that has already been purged of terror activity; instead, soldiers should be posted to ensure that terrorists do not return. The evidence of the flaws in Halevi’s policies is very strong: Most of the deaths in recent weeks were due to terrorists who emerged from areas that had already been cleared and launched surprise attacks on Israeli forces. To put it in plainer terms, the chief of staff is accused of endangering the lives of Israeli soldiers for no good reason. That is a very serious accusation.
Meanwhile, there is also a growing belief that Halevi and the rest of the IDF top brass were responsible for the failures of October 7. This has naturally led many to believe that they should not be allowed to remain in their positions even one moment longer. The calls to dismiss the chief of staff and other top generals have been mounting, especially after two other generals announced their resignations from the army. Everyone understands the reason for those resignations: The generals decided to step down because they sensed that they would soon be asked to dismiss themselves, and they preferred to leave the army with their dignity intact.
In addition to all that, the deputy chief of staff, General Amir Baram, wrote a letter to Herzi Halevi, asking for permission to step down from his position next month. Baram does not intend to give up his rank of general, but he no longer wishes to serve as the deputy chief of staff. Baram, who is one of the IDF’s most veteran and experienced officers, headed the Northern Command until October 2022, when he was appointed to the position of deputy chief of staff. He was holding this position on the tragic Simchas Torah when the war began, and he has continued serving in that capacity ever since. In his letter, Baram reveals that he has been requesting a meeting with the chief of staff for a long time, but that meeting hasn’t been granted to him. His departure, of course, will come as another serious blow to the chief of staff. In fact, Baram stresses that he is not resigning from the army, and that he actually sees himself as a candidate to replace Herzi Halevi in the top position in the IDF.
A Bitter Rivalry
In addition to his other woes, Herzi Halevi is embroiled in a bitter conflict with Israel’s minister of defense, Yisroel Katz. You may recall that I wrote about their mutual enmity two weeks ago, but the conflict has grown even more intense since that time. I reported at the time that the minister of defense asked the chief of staff to expedite the investigations into the army’s failures on October 7 and to relay his final conclusions. Katz backed up his demand by adding that he would refuse to approve any new promotions in the army until he received the conclusions of the internal inquiries. This was a clear sign of a lack of faith in the chief of staff. In the interim, the state comptroller released a statement sharply criticizing the army for its failure to cooperate with his own investigation into the events of October 7. This came as yet another blow to the army and the chief of staff. The state comptroller was also piqued by the fact that Halevi’s subordinates accompanied every officer who was subpoenaed to testify before the comptroller’s staff. His announcement angered the minister of defense, who ordered the army to cooperate fully with the comptroller. But the damage to the public image of the army and its chief of staff was done. It seems clear that they are not only fearful of an investigation but are actually trying to thwart any attempt to conduct a proper inquiry into the events.
A minor confrontation between the defense minister and the chief of staff was soon triggered, following a statement released by the IDF spokesman against the minister. Defense Minister Katz had released a statement to the media reporting that he had instructed Halevi to cooperate fully with the state comptroller’s inquiries. He also repeated his demand for the army’s internal investigations to be wrapped up, and warned that he would not approve any appointments in the army, even those of lower-ranking personnel. The army responded with an unusually sharp statement of its own: “These issues should be solved in dialogue between the minister of defense and the chief of staff, not through the media. The IDF manages a comprehensive system of investigations to improve its defense of the state and its citizens. The investigations proceed based on the burden of the combat; the commanding officers who oversee soldiers in the trenches are the same ones who are conducting the investigations. If an officer’s attention is divided on the battlefield, it can cost lives.”
Katz responded angrily, “The IDF spokesman, who recently apologized for overstepping the bounds of his authority and attacked the political echelon [regarding the Feldstein Law, which the spokesman denounced as a dangerous measure], has once again overstepped his bounds by attacking and rebuking the political leadership. This time, an apology will not be sufficient.”
Herzi Halevi and Yisroel Katz met this past Thursday, and Halevi informed the minister that he had approved the spokesman’s statement, and that the spokesman was not acting on his own.
This conflict is turning into a conflagration that will be very difficult to extinguish.
A Beloved Bochur
One of the soldiers who fell in the line of duty last week was a young man from Beitar Illit named Uriel Peretz. I once met Uriel at a minyan for Mincha in the Knesset shul. He was a yeshiva bochur in every sense, and I observed that he was at once cheerful and serious, emotional yet restrained. It was quite unusual to see such a person in the parliamentary milieu, and I found myself staring at him as he davened. He stood on the side of the room, facing a wall, and davened slowly and with great kavonah. When I asked someone about him, I was told that he worked as a mashgiach in the milchig cafeteria, and I decided to learn more about him so that I could have an opportunity to speak with him. But the next time our paths crossed, he took the initiative in approaching me. “I am a friend of your son; we learned together in Radin,” he said. Of course, he wasn’t referring to the famous village in Poland where the Chofetz Chaim resided; my son had spent a short period of time learning in the Yeshiva of Radin in Netanya, and this young man had been there as well. That night, my son identified him as Uriel Peretz. “He was an outstanding bochur in the yeshiva,” he said. “Everyone loved him, and he was very gracious to the other bochurim as well. In fact,” my son added, “he called to ask me if I felt it was appropriate for him to introduce himself to you.” Uriel Peretz was clearly a highly refined young man, whose sensitive soul prompted him to inquire about the propriety of such an interaction. Today, I regret that I did not develop our acquaintance further.
Uriel ended his work as a mashgiach in the Knesset when he decided to join the army, making sure to pass on his coveted position to a friend. Such concern for others was one of the hallmarks of his personality.
Uriel’s friends later attested that they had always known that he would join the army. He had always striven for excellence, and when his circumstances left him without a standard yeshiva framework, despite his desire to the contrary, it seemed inevitable that he would enlist in the army and would even join a combat unit.
Before he entered Gaza, Uriel spoke with a friend who asked him if he was fearful. Uriel replied, “If I am here, then that means that this is my tafkid, and I must see it through until the end.”
Uriel’s commitment to the highest level of achievement was evident in the army as much as in yeshiva. His experiences in the army were not easy, and there is no question that the yiras Shomayim that had been ingrained in him and the outstanding chinuch he received in his parents’ home were the only reasons that he managed to remain righteous and sincere. Anyone who knows the Peretz family of Beitar Illit would not be surprised by the caliber of their children. The bereavement and sorrow that were decreed upon them came as a tragic blow.
Despite the fact that Uriel was in a chareidi unit in the army, he had to work very hard to protect himself from corrupting influences. He once said to a friend, “I’ve been working on myself very hard, and that includes davening and maintaining set times for Torah learning.” Not many people are aware of this, but he continued learning with great diligence and conducting siyumim even after he left yeshiva. It is rumored that he learned the entirety of Seder Noshim and Seder Nezikin.
Never Angry
One of Uriel Peretz’s friends said to me, “There is something that everyone says about him—and when everyone says something, you know that it is true. It is said that he never became angry; he never raised his voice at anyone, he never held a grudge, and he was always good to others. He never wronged anyone!”
In one telling incident, I was told, Uriel and one of his friends worked together at great length to recruit bochurim for a new yeshiva. With his magnetic personality and sincerity, Uriel managed to convince numerous bochurim to register to learn in the yeshiva. However, the venture failed, and the yeshiva did not open. With his keen sense of responsibility to others, Uriel could not allow himself to leave the bochurim he had recruited in the lurch. One by one, he went through the list of bochurim and made sure to find alternative placements for them all. The yeshiva also did not pay him for his work, but Uriel did not utter a word of complaint. Moreover, he had used his personal credit card to pay for the car rental that he used for his recruitment work, and he wasn’t reimbursed even for that expense, but Uriel said nothing. He did not complain, and he certainly did not begin a quarrel. And that was typical of his refined personality.
Another bochur from the Yeshiva of Radin related, “He came to our yeshiva from Bais Shmaya, and he had also learned in Shvus Yehuda. These are very prominent yeshivos, and he was highly respected in Radin as well.” Uriel was part of a group of bochurim who remained in contact with each other even after the yeshiva changed its character. “We stayed in touch when he was in Nachlaot,” his friend from Radin related, “and then when he began working in real estate as well. He had always been a yeshiva bochur, and he always remained one at heart. His father told the visitors at the shiva that Uriel had always found time to learn even after he joined the army. I can personally attest that I saw him learning with his gun sitting beside him on the floor, on more than one occasion…. I still have a recording of a message he left on my voice mail expressing his concern for all the bochurim from Radin. He was happy to hear that they were all thriving, and he asked me to relay his best wishes to everyone.”
When Uriel was killed in Gaza, his friends were in absolute shock. It seemed inconceivable that their good friend with his golden heart had been cut down in his prime. Uriel was the young man who always seemed to know how to encourage others, how to say a kind word, and how to urge every one of his peers to believe in himself and his potential for greatness. “He knew how to elevate others,” the other bochur said. His passing plunged his friends into a state of palpable sadness. Their broken hearts were evident at the funeral and at the shiva. Many people visited the grieving family during the shiva to pay their respects, and every visitor was deeply moved. May Hashem avenge Uriel’s blood and allow his family and friends to find comfort.
Inquiry Reveals Mother and Son Killed by Friedly Fire
Before I move on from the subject of the war and its many repercussions, let me share one example of the revelations emerging from the inquiries into the events of October 7. This Friday, the IDF announced the results of an inquiry into the deaths of Tomer Arava-Eliaz and his mother, Dikla Arava, in Nachal Oz. According to the investigation’s findings, which were presented to the family, it seems that the mother and son were killed by Israeli fire. The army stressed that it is impossible to determine the cause of their deaths with certainty, but they appear to have been mistakenly killed by Israeli gunfire. This comes as yet another blow to the many families who suffered losses that day, and another mark of disgrace for the IDF.
The investigators have determined that on October 7, terrorists invaded the family’s home and fired their guns at the door of the safe room. The gunshots wounded Dikla’s husband, Noa Elyakim. The terrorists then picked up Dikla’s cell phone and began broadcasting their actions live. The video shows Tomer, under duress from the terrorists, walking from house to house on the kibbutz and calling on his neighbors to come out. The inquiry determined that Tomer managed to escape from the terrorists after about an hour and a half and to find a hiding place. Several minutes later, a group of soldiers who had spent six hours battling terrorists in the kibbutz spotted a suspicious-longing figure. The soldiers fired a number of gunshots, striking the suspicious figure. However, the investigators concluded that it was most likely that that figure was Tomer Arava-Eliaz, who was apparently killed by Israeli forces in a tragic case of mistaken identity. “Tomer Arava-Eliaz showed heroism until the moment he was shot,” the report states. Meanwhile, Dikla and Noam, along with the latter’s two daughters, Dafna and Ella, were abducted by terrorists and placed in a car. The inquiry has determined that Israeli gunfire struck the back of the car while the terrorists were driving toward Gaza, and Dikla was killed. The terrorists abandoned the car in the kibbutz, leaving Dikla’s body inside it. The IDF statement relates, “There is a reasonable suspicion that Dikla Arava was killed by gunfire from our forces while she was occupying a car that had been identified by our soldiers as a terrorist vehicle on the run. The soldiers opened fire at the car in the course of an intensive battle against the many terrorists who had infiltrated the kibbutz.”
Who knows what else will be revealed as the inquiries continue? It is clear that the defense establishment’s longstanding conceit had no basis in reality. Today, there is an absolute lack of faith in the army, the Shin Bet, and the Mossad, all of which were plagued by arrogance. I have to agree with the sentiments expressed by Shimon Elkabetz, whose daughter Sivan was killed in Kfar Azza. Elkabetz’s comments read like an indictment of the commander of the air force (similar to the sentiments expressed against Aharon Chaliva, the director of Israel’s military intelligence; Ronen Bar, the head of the Shin Bet, and Herzi Halevi, the chief of staff of the IDF). “Understand this,” Elkabetz wrote. “The pilots of the air force, which is considered one of the best such forces in the world, were all in their protected spaces while we were being slaughtered. You are right, Tomer Bar; you weren’t negligent. There is a different word for what you did on October 7: It was a crime. You weren’t prepared. You weren’t ready, and you did not have control of the situation. But the days are over when you could use investigative reports to whitewash your offenses, thinking that we would be satisfied with the contents of the reports. There is no way to whitewash the black stain of October 7…. Don’t try to tell us that the refusal to serve didn’t harm the air force’s readiness. It did cause harm. You weren’t there for us. You were conceited and arrogant, and you should bear the mark of failure for eternal disgrace. The things that you didn’t do will be remembered. I can only hope that you will learn your lessons.”
Hostage Deal Imminent
The subject of the hostages in Gaza is another issue that causes great pain to the nation and has sown division in this country. There are some voices that are calling for an immediate deal at any cost, while others insist that the government should not pay any price that is demanded of them. Some hostages’ families accuse Netanyahu of having no interest in bringing the hostages home; however, these people have likely lost their sense of reason, or else they always despised Netanyahu and are motivated by hatred for the prime minister rather than true concern for the hostages. Some of the hostages’ families simply cannot bear the agony of waiting any longer, but others, while they find it equally unbearable, insist that the government must act with greater responsibility. They consider it completely irresponsible to release thousands of Palestinian prisoners with the potential to murder again. And Netanyahu is under intense pressure from both camps.
Then there is another dilemma: Should the government insist on the release of all the hostages, or should they accept a partial release? This question is tearing the country apart. Of course, Hamas is incomparably cruel. Just think about this wrenching dilemma: Hamas claims to be willing to release some of the hostages. They will not confirm how many of them are alive, how many are young and how many are old, or how many are healthy and how many are ill. For the time being, we have learned about another two hostages who were murdered in captivity: Youssef Ziyadne and his son Hamza. Their bodies were discovered by Israeli soldiers in a tunnel in Rafah, and they were brought to Israel for identification and burial. This weekend, the IDF informed the family that after the police and the forensic specialists completed the identification process, it was also determined with certainty that they were murdered in captivity. This apparently leaves another 98 hostages in Hamas’s hands; those hostages are the subjects of the deal that is in the works.
Until now, Netanyahu believed that Israel should insist on the release of all the remaining hostages at once. The two right-wing ministers, Betzalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir, are strongly advocating for this position. Many of the families, on the other hand, have been calling on the government to accept the release of any hostages whom Hamas is willing to free. All of the hostages are in mortal danger, and the release of any hostage is a matter of life or death. At this point, Netanyahu seems to have given in to Hamas’s insistence on releasing only some of the hostages. Some believe that Netanyahu changed his position out of fear of Trump’s reaction, which is absurd. Trump threatened Hamas that if they do not release the hostages before his inauguration, he will open the gates of Gehinnom to rain terror upon them, but it seems that that threat has affected the Israelis as well. On Sunday evening, Netanyahu spoke with President Biden, who is pressuring the Israeli premier. There is no telling what will happen next, but we know that whatever Hashem decrees will come to pass.
Mother of a Hostage Barred from Knesset
There is a general sense that we are on the threshold of another hostage deal. The details aren’t exactly clear, and the process has been shrouded in secrecy, but everyone knows that envoys of both President Biden and incoming President Trump have arrived in Israel and that all the officials responsible for the negotiations have traveled to Qatar. As of this writing, the deal seems poised to be signed within the next two or three days. Everyone in Israel is waiting tensely for the final decision, and many tefillos are being whispered throughout the country.
This week, there was an unfortunate incident involving Einav Zangkauer, the mother of hostage Matan Zangkauer, who has turned into an undesired guest at the Knesset. After the distraught mother threw a bottle of water at a member of the Knesset and shouted curses in a distinctly unbecoming fashion, the Knesset Sergeant-at-Arms ordered her banned from the building. It is a very extreme measure to bar any citizen from the Knesset building, but there seemed to be no alternative. There are some things that a person should not do even when he or she is in the throes of powerful emotion. Even her son’s unspeakable plight does not give her the license to cross every red line imaginable. Knesset speaker Amir Ochana subsequently met with Mrs. Zangkauer and explained to her that her presence in the building would be welcome and that the Knesset will tolerate many things that the families might do, but there are still red lines that must not be crossed. This was certainly an appropriate step to take.
In contrast, Yair Lapid, the leader of the opposition, reacted to the move in a deplorable fashion, slamming it as “a moral disgrace and an ethical disgrace to be remembered in shame forever, and a black stain and unprecedented, pathetic decision.” Lapid added, “I have been a member of the Knesset for twelve years, and I have never been as ashamed as I am today.” Lapid, who is known for his prolific use of the most outrageous language, should probably be the last person to object to any breach of decorum in the Knesset. Furthermore, Lapid himself isn’t exactly a regular visitor to the Knesset. How many times has he actually been in the building over the past twelve years? His attendance is extremely poor, which makes me wonder how he can profess to know what has happened in the Israeli parliament in the past, when he is hardly aware of what is taking place there now.
Delegation of Settlers to Attend Trump Inauguration
An official delegation from the Yesha Council was invited to attend President Donald Trump’s inauguration in Washington next Monday. This delegation will include Yisroel Ganz, the chairman of the Yesha Council and head of the Binyamin Regional Council (which includes the city of Modiin Illit), as well as Yossi Dagan, the head of the Shomron Regional Council, and other senior officials. They will be official guests at the inauguration ceremony and will also preside over a number of events due to be held in Washington during the days before and after the inauguration. They are expected to meet with officials in the new administration and with leading figures in the Jewish community and the evangelical community. The Yesha Council announced that their delegation will not make any requests or proposals at this time, even the request for Israeli sovereignty to be applied to Yehuda and the Shomron. “The goal is to reinforce our existing ties and cultivate new ones,” they said. “There is no one in Washington who is interested in hearing about these topics now. Trump is focused on American sovereignty over Greenland, not Israeli sovereignty in Yehuda and the Shomron. This isn’t the right time; we must be smart and work strategically.”
In recent years, the Yesha Council and local governments in the area have invested heavily in developing relationships with leading figures in the Republican party. One of the important results of those efforts is the fact that many of the party’s leading voices have withdrawn their support for the concept of a Palestinian state. Even the term “West Bank” has fallen out of use, replaced by “Judea and Samaria.” These changes resulted from numerous meetings held over the years between Ganz or Dagan and important officials in Trump’s party, as well as tours of the area organized by the two men. The delegation of heads of local Israeli governments attended Trump’s inauguration in the year 2017 as well.
“The invitation that we received from the administration reflects the joint biblical values that Israel and the settlements share with America,” Ganz wrote. “We are fighting a common battle against the international axis of evil, and the settlements in Yehuda and the Shomron are the first line of defense for Israel, the United States, and the free world. We believe that we can accomplish great things that will bring about stability in the world order for generations, and we support Trump’s leadership in this endeavor. We will continue strengthening our ties with senior figures in the administration for that purpose.”
The incoming American ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, is a great friend of Yehuda and the Shomron.
Trump has also extended invitations to the inauguration to the families of the seven American hostages still being held in Gaza: Eden Alexander, Omer Neutra, Itai Chen, Keith Siegel, Sagui Dekel Chen, Judy Weinstein-Chagai, and Gad Chagai. It also seems likely that Sara Netanyahu, who has been in Miami for a while, will attend the inauguration as well.
The Judge’s Fury
I owe you an update on the draft crisis as well. Last week, the Supreme Court met to discuss petitions calling for increased pressure on the government to conscript yeshiva bochurim into the army. It was recently reported that one of the judges, Noam Sohlberg—who wears a yarmulke—was shocked when he heard that there are 80,000 yeshiva bochurim and kollel yungeleit in the country today. “What?” he exclaimed, pounding on the table in anger as he raised his voice. “Eighty thousand? That’s a huge number, and you [the government] are doing nothing about it!” Somehow, Sohlberg felt justified in excluding himself from the government. He asked if the state plans to draft all of the bnei yeshivos, and he was baffled by the fact that they plan to conscript only 5000 bochurim and yungeleit in a year.
To be honest, no one actually knows the exact provisions of the new draft law. We know only that the minister of defense asked for an opportunity to present the bill to the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee this Tuesday. It is rumored that the bill will include a target of 5000 new recruits annually, but it is hard to believe that this is a realistic goal. Sohlberg was infuriated both by the low target number and by the lack of sanctions in the bill, and he asked the state to clarify what penalties will be imposed on a draft candidate who fails to comply with a draft order. There has been talk of barring those people from leaving the country and from receiving drivers’ licenses, and even canceling their property tax discounts and stipends from the National Insurance Institute. This law sounds like something that was written in Sodom!
There is also a good chance that the committee will make the terms of the bill even more draconian. Even if its provisions are already so that the chareidi community balks at accepting it, some of the committee members might feel that it is too lenient. Recent reports indicate that the bill calls for a quota of about 10,000 chareidim to be drafted within the next two years, sanctions for yeshivos that do not meet the goals, personal and collective sanctions to penalize draft candidates for failing to comply with the army’s goals, and the revocation of the status of “Torah as a profession” that protects bnei Torah from the draft. The bill would also keep the age of draft exemption at 26, where it currently stands. The problem is that Yuli Edelstein, who chairs the committee (and wears a yarmulke), has already announced that he will not accept a bill that he considers a sham. And he isn’t the only member of the Likud to demonstrate a measure of insubordination against Netanyahu. Meanwhile, Defense Minister Yisroel Katz has been talking about aiming to reach a situation within the next seven years in which 50 percent of yeshiva bochurim at the age of 18 are drafted every year. That is a massive number of bochurim to conscript into the army. The situation seems bleak, and we must keep in mind that whatever happens next, it will be what Hashem decrees.
Turmoil in the Knesset
On a related note, the coalition has been tested recently. Netanyahu needs to preserve the coalition’s majority in the Knesset, especially in light of its fragility. He needs a strong, stable coalition, and it is especially critical for him to maintain coalition discipline, both due to the state budget, which is currently on the agenda, and on account of the draft law. The previous minister of defense, Yoav Gallant, proved to be an obstacle to the progress of the draft law and hampered Netanyahu’s management of the war, and he has since been fired. Gallant also deliberately refrained from attending Knesset votes, and the Likud party was about to declare him a defector, which would have resulted in stiff personal sanctions, but Gallant preempted the move by resigning from the Knesset. He was replaced by a Druse politician who is utterly disciplined and compliant.
Meanwhile, Itamar Ben-Gvir staged his own minor rebellion, to the point that Netanyahu was forced to come to the Knesset from his hospital bed, against his doctors’ orders, to vote for a bill that Ben-Gvir threatened to torpedo. It was later reported that the doctors told him that they were willing to give him clearance to come to the Knesset in a wheelchair, to avoid putting undue stress on the site of his surgery, but Netanyahu insisted on showing up by foot so that no one would be able to publish a picture of him in a wheelchair. Almog Cohen, one of the members of Ben-Gvir’s party, ultimately agreed to break ranks with his party and to support the government, and Ben-Gvir later announced that he regretted his actions. Nevertheless, Ben-Gvir and his party later voted against a different law, one that wasn’t especially critical, and Almog Cohen broke ranks again and voted along with the coalition. At this point, then, Netanyahu has Cohen and the new Druse MK, who will follow his orders, and he also has the support of Gideon Saar and the members of his party, who recently joined the coalition, making up for the resignation of Benny Gantz and his party. But things are not yet stable, and the opposition is watching in glee as the coalition seems to be crumbling.
Then again, the opposition has its own woes as well. Idan Roll, a member of Yair Lapid’s party, recently announced that he was resigning from Yesh Atid and forming his own party of one. The coalition sees this as a sign that the opposition is falling apart as well. Lapid is losing his standing, and his onetime allies are beginning to abandon the sinking ship. Rumor has it, in fact, that Idan Roll might eventually join forces with the Likud. That certainly promises to be interesting. For the time being, most of the changes in the Knesset seem to be beneficial to Netanyahu and to the chareidim, especially with respect to the draft law.
Rav Neuwirth Never Opened a Refrigerator
A modest apartment on Rechov Bergman in Yerushalayim recently received a large stream of visitors, as the Neuwirth family sat shiva for Rebbetzin Chava Neuwirth, the widow of Rav Yehoshua Neuwirth, the author of Shemiras Shabbos Kehilchasah. (Rav Neuwirth passed away over a decade ago, on the 3rd of Tammuz 5773/2013.) The rebbetzin was a partner in her husband’s magnificent endeavors and was a distinguished woman. She often knew exactly how her husband would pasken on a given shailah. Someone once cited the fact that Rav Neuwirth did not open his refrigerator on Shabbos as evidence of a halachic stringency. However, Rav Neuwirth’s children quickly rejected the argument, revealing that their father did not open the refrigerator even on a regular weekday—because his wife took care of all his needs for him.
When Rav Boruch Shapiro showed up at the shiva, he told the mourners, “I was a ben bayis here, and this was a household of Torah. Everything that exists in Bayit Vegan today is owed to this family.” He recalled that Rav Neuwirth once asked him to accompany him on an important trip to France. Rav Boruch replied, “How can I go with you? I, as the gabbai, would be wearing a frock, while you, the rov, would wear an ordinary short jacket and a hat with a kneitsch?”
One of Rav Neuwirth’s sons related, “I once asked my father why he kept taking on more responsibilities. He brought me to the window, opened it, and said, ‘Do you hear that? This is the reason.’ From our window, we could hear the voices of the talmidim learning in Yeshivas Nesivos Chochmah [today known as Nesivos Aviezer] which was in the adjacent building at the time.”
At Rav Neuwirth’s levayah, the procession passed by the entrances to the various yeshivos he had founded. Rav Ezriel Auerbach remarked, “It is fortunate that we didn’t have to pass by all the eiruvin that he built as well.”
Today, we know that Rav Neuwirth was the driving force behind many religious institution in Bayit Vegan, including the mikveh and the communal tzedokah fund.
